Complete Disaster Non-Preparedness: DC Grocery Stores Out of Food, Gas Unavailable...
Complete Disaster Non-Preparedness: DC Grocery Stores Out of Food, Gas Unavailable, Grid-Down As Summer Heat Rages
We’ve seen it time and again over the last decade. An emergency strikes and panic grips the city or region for days or weeks on end. We saw a complete breakdown of emergency response and law & order during Hurricane Katrina.
The 2011 Snowpocalypse on the east coast led to runs on grocery stores and empty shelves within a matter of hours. Widespread blackouts during Hurricane Ike left large sections of the Houston power grid down for up to four weeks. In all these cases gas was almost impossible to find, what was in your pantry was what you had until food distribution resumed, local water was not safe for consumption, and government response was limited to reinstating essential services first and foremost.
The bottom line, as Jesselyn Radack of the Government Accountability Project notes, is that after billions have been spent by Department of Homeland Security, FEMA and local law enforcement, we are no more prepared today than we were the day before September 11, 2011.
After a short but unusually severe thunderstorm that roared through the D.C. area on Friday night, the entire Washington Metropolitan Area was thrown into chaos.
Three days later, countless traffic lights are still out, hundreds of thousands of residents are without power, including myself, grocery stores and gas station are closed for lack of power, and the federal government is encouraging employees to telework.
[SHTFplan Editor's note: Brilliant recommendation from the best and brightest - to "telework" when the grid is down. ]
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Is this the work of a terrible terrorist attack? No, it is the complete disaster non-preparedness a decade after 9/11. Despite the fact that billions if not trillions have been spent since 9/11 on counter-terrorism and so-called “homeland security” measures, one of the major terrorist targets, the nation’s capital, cannot cope with a severe thunderstorm.
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I received a message from PEPCO that most D.C.-area residents may not have power until next Friday at 11:00 pm – a full week after the storm hit. With temperatures this week set for the mid to upper-90s, that is a long time for residents to be with air conditioning, or fans, or refrigerators.
Two years ago, the Washington Post’s comprehensive examination of the billions of taxpayer dollars spent on “homeland security,” “Top Secret America” reflected that the D.C. metropolitan area was burgeoning with infrastructure, though apparently none of it focused on keeping the D.C.-area up and running after a severe thunderstorm.
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I am not the only D.C. taxpayer wondering, where are billions in “critical infrastructure” protection and “homeland security?” They are not going toward obvious solutions like putting power lines underground.
The D.C. area’s responsiveness to unexpected events has not improved, but taxpayers’ pockets have been drained to create an entire secret city of “national security” in northern Virginia. Making sure citizens have food and power in an emergency should be a top priority, not a distant second to security theater like taking our shoes off before getting on an airplane.
(Pictured: Run on grocery stores; Snowpocalypse 2010)
Once again we are provided with ample evidence that not only is the government ill-prepared to handle a large scale city-wide emergency, but the residents of this nation are completely oblivious to the fact that if the shit hits the fan, no one will be there to provide assistance.
When Houston was hit almost head on by Hurricane Ike in 2008 the residents of the entire metropolitan area were shocked. Never mind the mass chaos as millions tried to flee the region, with drives to neighboring cities taking upwards of ten times longer than they normally would. Power for 90% of the city went out, and for some areas, including where we lived, power was not restored for almost a month. Suffice it to say our community was anxiety ridden, frustrated and tempers were flaring. When gas became wholly unavailable and the generators stopped running and we were overtaken with near 100 degree heat during the day, the situation for many became untenable.
FEMA’s own web site calls on Americans to have a two week supply of emergency items, yet most citizens have only a three day supply of reserve food available – whatever’s in the kitchen when disaster strikes is what they’ve got until things get back to normal.
Even after these recommendations from the very people who are tasked with responding to emergency and disaster situations, not a single resident in our community that we were aware of had emergency supplies on hand when Ike hit – even though many had gone through countless hurricanes before and knew what to expect.
After Katrina, Ike, the various earthquakes, wildfires, snow storms, “Derechos,” power outages, and tens of billions in taxpayer funds supposedly appropriated into infrastructure, security and emergency response, it’s simply incredible that we are so unprepared as a society.
Imagine, for a moment, what happens in a scenario that affects not a single city, but an entire multi-state region, or, perhaps the entire nation. And imagine that the event(s) is so widespread that government is totally overwhelmed – food transportation stops, refineries can’t get gas to local areas, water and power utility workers stay home to care for their families, law enforcement is faced with widespread looting, the internet becomes inaccessible as do all avenues of communication due to blackouts, and grocery store shelves remain out of stock for weeks or months.
Such a scenario may be unlikely, but certainly possible – and the resulting effects on the population and our way of life would be nothing short of complete and utter pandemonium, especially for those who have failed to prepare.
Author: Mac Slavo
Views: Read by 22,638 people
Date: July 2nd, 2012
Website: [Only registered and activated users can see links. ]
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Black Blade: You know, I just don't feel sorry for these people at all. People know that they should be prepared for disaster and should have nonperishable food and basic goods stockpiled for emergencies. My word to them is 'go ahead and starve".
__________________ When you're born you get a ticket to the freak show. When you're born in America , you get a front row seat. - George Carlin
I feel better knowing that I am stocked for a month or more, but I'm still nowhere near where I want to be. Big issue with me is the heat. Man I could heat the house pretty easy during winter, but without power in the summer here in S.C. the temps and humidity are brutal without a/c.
__________________ Enforcement, NOT Amnesty!!!!!!
"If they’re going to come here illegally, apply for & receive assistance through a corrupted Government agency encouraging this lawless behavior, work under the table & send billions of dollars each year back to their families in Mexico, while bleeding local economies dry, protest in our streets waving their Mexican flags DEMANDING rights, while I have to press ’1′ for English, then they need to be shipped back to where they came from!" -Chad Miller
Last edited by 2ndAmendican; 07-05-2012 at 07:38 AM..
Reason: Spelling/Grammar.
Interesting post Black Blade...
Yes, once again the cities are hurting..
More interesting is the fact that living out in nowhere here, we are stocked up, not by choice but necessity.
Hell it is an all day adventure to drive too the store for supplies.
Supplies get anywhere near low, off too the store and do a major re-supply..
Probably should listen to you and get more into survival supplies.
Last hurricane, small one, took out our power for a week..
Hell I did not care, but the girlfriend would die without the T.V.. So I used my buddies generator..
God forbid she missed an episode of Judge Judy and Dr. Phil..
Of interest is everyone in our small town pulled together.
Neighbors helping neighbors with necessities.
We have enough game animals, water, natural veggies in the swamp here, to survive for a damn long time.
Advantage of living in the middle of a million acres of forest and swamp, with a small population.
Now if we can just figure out how too keep those city folk out when they get hungry, we might just make it long term.
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When a hurricane is coming, people flee the Daytona beach A.O....
We stand on RT #40 with a big sign..
"Survival shelter for good looking women, follow our signs. Sorry no men."
__________________
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. "Man needs but two things to survive alone in the woods. A blow up female doll and his trusty old AK-47" - Thomas Jefferson 1781
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
When a hurricane is coming, people flee the Daytona beach A.O....
We stand on RT #40 with a big sign..
"Survival shelter for good looking women, follow our signs. Sorry no men."
you could do what the city did during katrina, have a big sign that reads --
" GOVERNMENT EMERGENCY EVACUATION BUSS to pick up evacuees at DOCKs--please wait at dock, pick a number--"
just in time for the tidal wave to hit--i don't think that buss ever came and if it did it was swept out to sea with everyone else--
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Complete Disaster Non-Preparedness: DC Grocery Stores Out of Food, Gas Unavailable...
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